China Has Over $1.244 Trillion in Total US Debt

Foreign holdings of US debt was up approximately $40 billion in December of 2014, despite the fact that Russia, one of the largest holders of US debt, dumped over 20% of their holdings during the month.

Russia has been dealing with some very large issues as of late, including the fallout from the situation in Ukraine, which has led to some sanctions from the United States. In addition, the drastic drop in oil has shattered the nation's finances, which has led to a precipitous drop in the ruble.

For these reasons, it shouldn't surprise anybody to learn that Russia has been aggressively paring down their holdings of US debt as of late. In December of 2013, Russia held over $138 billion worth of US debt. By December of 2014, following a particularly aggressive month of selling, Russia's holdings of US debt had fallen all the way to $86 billion. To put this into some perspective, this puts Russia just ahead of countries such as Mexico, India and Norway when it comes to total US debt holdings.

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China and Japan continue to be the world's largest foreign holders of US debt, as both have positions that total more than $1.2 trillion. China continues to lead the way with total holdings of $1.2443 trillion, while Japan is close behind with a position of $1.23 trillion. Japan, however, has narrowed the gap considerably over the past year, as China has trimmed their holdings by over 2% while Japan has expanded theirs by 4%.